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Rating: 
Summary: Great reference: Best buy!
Review: I wrote this book because sometimes all you need is a good reference guide to get you started with Linux. I organize everything neatly into 9 mini reference guides and I cover Fedora Core, the latest incarnation of Red Hat Linux. Anything you want is pretty much covered in one of the minibooks - - all in plain English. Of course, if you are new to Linux, the first minibook is the one you turn to - - it shows you how to set up Fedora Core from the DVD bundled with the book. (By the way, because it's a DVD, you get everything -- both binary and source - - for Fedora Core.) After you install Fedora Core, you can jump to any minibook that interests you - - just look at the book's spine or the convenient tab marks on each page. What you'll like most about this book is that you don't have to read it sequentially chapter by chapter, or, for that matter, even the sections in a chapter. You can pretty much turn to the topic you want and quickly get the answer to your pressing questions about Fedora Core, be it about using the OpenOffice.org word processor or setting up the Apache Web server. Here's what I cover in the 880+ page book: Book I: Red Hat Basics: Install, configure, and troubleshoot Fedora Core, then take it for a test drive. Book II: Workstations and Applications: Explore GNOME and KDE, use the shell, check out the file system, explore the applications, and learn the editor. Book III: OpenOffice.org: Learn to use the OpenOffice.org office suite. Book IV: Networking: Connect to the Internet (dial-up, DSL, or cable modem), configure TCP/IP network, set up wireless Ethernets. Book V: Internet: Use Internet services such as e mail, Web surfing, reading newsgroups, and FTP. Book VI: Administration: Learn the basics of system administration, manage user accounts, install applications, use USB devices, rebuild the kernel. Book VII: Security: Learn the techniques to secure the host and the network and do security audits. Book VIII: Internet Servers: Manage Internet services such as the Apache Web server, the vsftpd FTP server, mail and news servers, DNS, NFS, and Samba. Book IX: Programming: Learn the basics of programming in C, shell, and Perl. Hope you find the book useful!
Rating: 
Summary: Long on pages, but short on substance
Review: If you have never seen or used a computer before, this book MIGHT help you...but I doubt it. While there are pages and topics galore, there is very little substance. In most cases, the author does little more than tell you how to access an item from the menu (ie: from the drop-down box select xxx -or- select the widget you want to include in the frammit and select "save" from the "file" menu. After reading this text, you will have an understanding of how to start programs, make your windows and menu bars multi-colored, and how to save documents...but little else. The only redeeming factor to this book is that it is available for $1.69 used - I pity the folks who paid full price.
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